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How much honey a hive gave and what the Scale measures

Plan: Apisense PRO AI

The Scale weighs the whole hive: the colony, the combs, the stores and the equipment. The Scale does not weigh only the honey. The quantity of honey from a hive is the sum of the confirmed honey harvests in the Harvest tab. The function that calculates this is Honey Intelligence.

What the Scale measures

  • The Scale gives the mass of the whole hive. This mass includes the bees, the brood, the combs, the stores, the nectar, the boxes and the feeder.
  • The Scale also measures the outside temperature at the hive.
  • The Weight chart shows the change of the hive mass over time. The chart is in the Hive state tab, in the Weight card.
  • The weight functions work in the Pro AI plan and only in a hive with a Scale.

What the honey stages mean

Honey Intelligence shows the honey stage on the apiary card and in the Weight card of the hive:

  • Nectar flow on: the hive mass increases because the bees bring in nectar. The variant Nectar flow on · {tempo}/day (for example 1.2 kg/day) gives the increase of the hive mass per day. These are not kilograms of honey. Nectar contains much water, and this water evaporates later.
  • Honey is ripening: the nectar flow has stopped. The bees evaporate the water, and the mass decreases slowly. The app can show May be ready within 3 days or May be ready in 4-7 days.
  • Honey may be ready: the mass is stable. The app advises: Check the capping. With about 2/3 of the frame capped you can harvest. This is an estimate, not a certainty. The hive mass alone does not tell whether the honey is ripe. Always check the capping before you harvest.

In the Weight card of the hive, expand the hint. Under Why: the app gives the reasons, for example the mass has been rising for {days} days.

The honey stage needs a Scale and a VitalSensor in the hive. Without a VitalSensor, the app shows Add a VitalSensor to this hive to follow the honey ripening. Harvests and weight events work with only a Scale.

What the strip of the next days shows

On the apiary card and in the Weight card of the hive there is the Next 7 days row. The colour of a day shows the honey stage: flow on, ripening or may be ready. A day with a dashed outline is an estimate: the honey may be ready then. The dipper icon means weather for a honey harvest.

When the honey looks ripe outside the harvest season, the app shows The honey looks ripe, but it's outside the harvest season.

How the app calculates honey harvests

  1. The Scale detects an unusual decrease of mass, for example after a honey harvest.
  2. You confirm what it was. See What happened to the hive? Weight events.
  3. The confirmed harvests go into the sum Confirmed honey since the start of the {year} season in the Harvest tab.

The Honey harvested card shows an estimate from the Scale data until you confirm the harvests. The app then shows An estimate from Scale data until you confirm the harvests. The only certain number is the honey from the confirmed harvests.

When the Scale detects mass drops that you have not answered, the card asks: How much of it was honey? Confirm the harvests in each hive's events.

A harvest counts the full decrease of the hive mass: the difference between the hive mass before the harvest and after it. The app does not subtract the mass of the frames, the wax or the super. When you remove a super with frames, the result also includes their mass. You cannot enter your own honey mass in the app.

Where the Harvest tab is

Open the apiary. Select the Harvest tab. The tab is on the apiary screen, not on the hive screen. It contains:

  • the season selection, for example Season {year} (in progress),
  • Honey harvested and Confirmed honey since the start of the {year} season,
  • the Harvest ranking of the hives with a Scale and the Apiary harvest total:,
  • Harvest season: the dates that repeat each year.

The Apisense team sets the Harvest season dates for the country where the Hub of the apiary is. You do not change them. An apiary without a Hub has no harvest season. When the dates are not correct for your region, write to bee@apisense.ai.

Good to know

  • During a nectar flow, the hive mass increases faster than the quantity of honey. Do not count the increase of mass as a harvest.
  • A hive without a Scale has no honey stages and no harvests in the app.